Day 30: ISF meeting and hockey tickets

Today after our morning class, I was supposed to meet up with Jake but he'd attempted an all-nighter and fallen asleep while I was on my way in the subway.
..which I didn't find out before I arrived on the other side of the Han River (한강).

Although it's a long'ish way, I love going south of the river because I get to enjoy the view. The weather wasn't too clear today but oh the water! The sun glistened in it and it was this perfect baby blue colour!

The weather cleared up later (it was only 10.30 when I took that picture) and it eventually became yet another extremely sunny and hot day. While I was waiting for Jake to reply, I went inside McDonald's to cool myself down and fix some mistakes in my presentation that I had to do later in Korean class today.

And then, after realizing that I wouldn't be hanging out with Jake today, I took this picture on my way home.

I'm pretty sure I saw an actor do a double take on me down in the subway so wuuhuu! Confidence boost!

The presentation went okay. I was super nervous but it wasn't due to having to speak/read Korean in front of my classmates and teacher - it as having to do a presentation itself. Ughhhhh

Isabella, Celine, and I went to what we've dubbed our typical place now and had dinner. I had to eat quickly and leave the others as I'd promised the Russian girl to go to the ISF meeting that I'd been invited to earlier.

It turns out that the meetings are like extra Korean classes that are being held once a week on Thursdays. We were a classroom with students and teachers and all of us were divided into group according to what KLI level we were in. The Russian girl is on level 4 so I didn't get to talk to her at all during the meeting - instead, the sweet Chinese girl sitting behind me, Yumeong (유멍), showed me to where the other lvl 3 students were sitting. Inside the classroom, we were split into smaller groups that each had their own teacher. It was quite intense because instead of being a whole class of people, now we were suddenly 5 students (and we were the biggest group, I think) so we all had to talk a lot instead of mostly listening like we do in our actual Korean classes.

Our lvl 3 group consisted of 3 Chinese girls, me, a Japanese guy, and our teacher.

The theme today was Chuseok (추석 = upcoming Korean Holiday), something I'd learned about during my first or second semester at my home university. I had learned most of the words before but forgotten them by now. Our teacher made sure to explain every word and concept to us and I also got to learn a few new words.

I had a really good experience tonight! Since I'd learned the words before and knew about the holiday, I could focus on practicing conversation.

It was a fairly long class. 2-2½ hours maybe. But it was very laid back, they gave us a break, and also provided snacks and juice so I was pretty content.

When 'class' ended, the Russian girl, Yumeong, and I walked together some of the way on our way home. While walking, we talked about Yonkojeon (연고전 = Yonsei and Korea University's sports festival) tomorrow. Yumeong mentioned how her friends weren't going to go but that she had wanted to if possible. She asked us what our plans were and if she could possibly join. The Russian girl was going with some other Russians so I told her she could join us going tomorrow.
In the evening, we finalized the time and place to meet the next morning (⑈ ᵕ⑈)

I also met up with Wonjun late in the night!
We'd told him yesterday how we didn't manage to get tickets for the ice hockey game and somehow he'd managed to talk his best friend and friend into going to the basketball game instead and give his their tickets so he could give them to us.
He'd wanted to go watch the hockey game as well but no matter how much I argued, he wouldn't let us not accept the tickets.
Sigh.
I was extremely grateful but also felt super guilty about it. But it was no use. Wonjun wouldn't budge.

 Wonjun is too precious for this world.